Introduction

Swisscontact is a business-oriented international development agency. Working in 33 countries with over 1,100 team members, Swisscontact has been fostering economic, social and environmental development since 1959. Swisscontact is currently implementing the Skills for Life (S4L) Project, a 3-year project, whose goal is to strengthen the income generating capabilities of youth in Kakuma (refuge and host communities) by enhancing technical, financial, life and literacy skills for improved livelihoods.

Background

The second phase of the S4L project, which was necessitated by the success of the pilot and notable increasing demand for training, with over 1,800 individuals interested in training during the pilot that could not be absorbed by the project will run from July 2016 to June 2019. The project applies a market-oriented, flexible and low-cost approach to skills development and aims to provide targeted technical skills training to out-of-school youth (16 – 29 years) as well as life skills and targeted business development services. The project’s target is 2,500 youth (50:50 male/female and 20% young mothers) from both the refugee and the host communities.

In line with the project’s overall goal, the project’s business support component offers skills training in entrepreneurship and financial literacy as well as business development support to groups through coaching and mentorship. Additionally, the business support component also strengthens beneficiary access to financial services by supporting them to form savings and credit groups and also facilitating linkages to mainstream financial service providers.

To achieve this, the project utilizes trained Community-Based Trainers (CBTs) and short-term Technical Skills Providers (TSPs) to provide business support trainings and services as well as facilitate linkages with formal financial institutions on a need basis. Currently, the project is keen on strengthening collaboration between the project’s business groups/associations and other actors such as local businesses/companies, local trainers, vocational institutions, government agencies and financial institutions so as to enhance access to technical assistance, markets, financial services and business information for the project’s beneficiaries. 

To this end, the project is seeking the services of a consultant to facilitate a training of trainers’ workshop for existing Project Assistants and Community Based Trainers to equip them with business coaching and mentoring skills delivery, that would help strengthen the capacities of business Groups established by project beneficiaries in business management as well as build their capacity to engage with other actors.

Objective and Scope of the Consultancy

The overall objective of the consultancy is to equip project staff and partner personnel with skills and knowledge on business coaching and mentoring so as to strengthen the capacities of the project’s Business Groups (BGs) and related business associations to effectively manage and expand their businesses. Specifically, the consultant will be expected to facilitate an interactive and context-specific one-week workshop for project beneficiaries. 

The course content should be inclusive of but not limited to the following topics;

Definition of Business Development Support Services (BDSS)

• Rationale of Business Development Support Services

Entrepreneurs recruitment and engagement

• Business Development Support to Entrepreneurs


• Helping to build both the supply and demand for high quality products and services


• Technical and Business intervention chain

Technical, Business Development Safety, Finance, Gender and Growth Training:

• Entrepreneurship Skills


• Costing and pricing


• Marketing


• Business Financing


• Business record keeping


• Understanding Customer relations


• Gender Inclusive Training


• Health and safety at work place

Business Mentoring:

• Definition of Mentoring


• Mentoring steps


• Required skills for business mentoring


• Things that good mentoring skills help to achieve


• Mentoring tools


• Enterprise work plans

Market development

• Market development activities


• Market Linkages; Business linkages and Commercial relationships


• Networking events

Access to capital

• Financial Needs Assessment


• Preliminary loan appraisal


• Financial Institution loan appraisal and approval


• Loan disbursement and loan repayment follow up.

Deliverables:  

1. Develop comprehensive and context-specific training modules.


2. 20 Project staff equipped with Business coaching and mentoring skills.


3. Develop detailed and comprehensive training report including recommendations and list of participants.

Reporting Arrangements

• The Consultant shall work closely with the project’s Business Support Skills Coordinator under the overall oversight of the Project Manager.

Duration of Assignment

• The time-frame for this assignment is 5 working days from 08h00 – 16h00. Starting from March 25th up to 29th 2019. The ToT will be carried out in Kakuma town.

Qualifications

Potential candidates should:

1. Have substantial knowledge of entrepreneurship and business development in Kenya and specific in a fragile context;


2. Have experience providing business support services to micro and small enterprises, with at least 3 years of working experience in entrepreneurship and business development;


3. Have demonstrable experience facilitating trainings to youth and be capable of delivering participatory trainings, which are responsive to the needs of youth and local context;


4. Be a holder of a Bachelor’s degree in Business, Management or Entrepreneurship or any other related social science field and/or have over five years’ experience providing business development services.

Applications

Interested individuals are invited to submit a brief expression of interest (no more than 5 pages) demonstrating their experience and outlining the proposed modules and their content as well as proposed consultancy fees by close of business on 8th March 2019 at the latest 5:00 pm.